PMO confirms terrorists' bodies to be transferred to PA
Following PMO's Wednesday denial of report on Israeli intention to hand over to Palestinians bodies of terrorists buried in Israeli territory, High Court procedure supports reports
On Thursday, the State informed the High Court that Israel was to hand over the bodies.
Related stories:
- Report: Israel to hand over terrorists' bodies to Palestinians
-
Israel to transfer bodies of terrorists to PA
Over the past few months the High Court has been deliberating on the request of 15 families of Palestinian terrorists. The families petitioned the court in request to retrieve the bodies of their relatives.
According to the State's response, as obtained by Ynet, the State argued the bodies would be transferred as soon as possible.
Following Wednesday's reports regarding the deal to hand over the bodies, the PMO insisted that "the publications were incorrect and at the moment no transfer of bodies is planned."
In May, however, the State informed the court that in accordance with the decision of the political echelon, under which 91 bodies were handed over to the Palestinians in 2012, the State intended to continue the move.
The State added that the families' petitions may be redundant seeing as the State had intended to send all bodies.
On Thursday, at the request of Supreme Court President Asher Grunis, the State noted that over the past few weeks, various aspects regarding the exhumation, transfer and identification of the bodies are reviewed."
Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh said Wednesday that the coming transfer will most likely consist of dozens of bodies.
He added that Israel has agreed to transfer all the bodies in its possession to the Palestinian Authority and that the Palestinians were waiting until DNA tests to identify the bodies are concluded.
Meanwhile, peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians resumed Wednesday in Jerusalem.
Elior Levy contributed to this report
- Receive Ynetnews updates
directly to your desktop
